Igor The Troll

My Heart Attack - Defibrillator

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing a heart attack. I am not trying to brag about it, but just to tell you a bit of how things developed.

As you know, I live in Japan. I never went to a doctor with anything serous, and I hardly took any aspirins or medication at all. One day I started getting chest pains, particularly in my lungs. It felt like a burning sensation. It lasted for about 30 minutes, and then it was gone. I casually forgot about it, until the next day when the pain came back. This time the pain was more acute and would not cease. I felt really uncomfortable and decided to go to a hospital to check it out. I really thought it was just a nasty cold.

I went downstairs of my building and hailed a taxi. I speak fluent Japanese, so I was not worried about communicating with the driver. I told him I had chest pains and asked him to take me to a hospital emergency room. The guy told me that because it was Saturday most hospital emergency rooms in my neighborhood are closed. I found it incredible to believe, but it is Japan. Who knows? I implored the driver that I am in a lot of pain and to please find a hospital emergency room that is open. He agreed to take me to one, which he said is not far way.

The driver started driving and driving, going around one block and another. I said to him that I am in a lot of pain, and asked him how long it will take to get there. He said it is not far away. But he kept going around side streets and sort of going in circles. I was in agonizing pain and asked him if he really knew where the hospital is. He said that if I really need help he could call an ambulance to come get me. The thing is that in Japan when an ambulance comes for you they need to get an approval from a hospital before they can take you there. Some hospitals do not want to attend to certain cases, so they just say they are busy or have no beds. In extreme cases, people have died. So I insisted that he should take me, but I implored him to ask someone for directions. He did not really want to ask people. I guess he did not want to admit he was lost. At my beckoning, he finally asked some lady where this hospital is. She told him that the hospital that he was looking for has moved to one street down from where it use to be. A few more minutes we arrived at the hospital. Actually it was not a hospital but a small clinic, and it was closed. I tried knocking on the door and rang the bell, but no one answered.

I came back into the taxi. I was in a lot of pain, and it was hard to breath. I cursed the guy and screamed at him, “You asshole. You bring me to a clinic that is closed. I am in pain.” He said he will take me to a hospital, but it is a bit far away. I agreed and said please hurry up. He started driving, and then he stopped. I asked him what is wrong. Again he said he would call an emergency ambulance for me. At that point I just jumped out of the car, without paying him, and ran towards a main road to find another taxi. I did not see a taxi, but I saw a couple of policemen. I told them I have chest pains, and I need to go to an emergency room. I asked them where is there a hospital close by that is open. They offered to call an ambulance, but I insisted they just tell me the name of the hospital, and I will take a taxi there myself. They flagged a taxi for me and told the taxi driver to take me to Police Hospital, which was not far way. I thanked them very much and got into the cab.

The driver did not waste any time and took me straight to the hospital emergency room. In the hospital, I went over to the registration desk. I explained to the staff I have chest pains. I said that I have Japanese national insurance, but I did not bring my card with me. The clerk asked me for my name, address, and other registration information. I provided them to her. The lady told me to have a seat in the waiting room. By that time I was in excruciating pain, gasping for air. I could not seat still and came back to the registration desk. I cried to her, “I cannot take the pain!” A security guard came by and placed his hands on my shoulders, pushing me away from the registration desk window. I freaked out and slammed the security guard in the chest with my palms, yelling, “Help me please!” The registration clerk lady told me to please sit down and the doctor will come see me right away. A few minutes later an attending nurse came to get me and whisked me to an examination room.

She told me to lay down on an examination bed, which I did. She hooked up some oscilloscope to me and in a minute she told me I am having a heart attack. I said, “What, a heart attack?” I told her that I think I have a bad cold. She said no, it is a heart attack, and that I must get treatment right away. At that time I was really worried. I exercise a lot and drink very little liquor. But I do smoke cigarettes. I am forty-seven years old. I hardly get a cold. Was I going to die? This thought was crossing my mind! She brought me to an operating room. There a doctor came to see me. The doctor said to me that I needed to have an operation on my heart right away. He said some of my heart vessels have collapsed. The surgery is to clear my heart vessels with a wire through a small hole in my arm or leg, to insert small balloons in them, and to place stents in vessels to prevent them from collapsing. I asked him when do I need to have the operation. Do I have time to think about it? He replied, “If you do not do it now, your heart will stop working and you will die!”

I was really scared. Here I am in a strange country. Yes, I have lived here for a while, but I still have trouble understanding Japanese society and culture. I had to make life or death decision. The doctor explained, the longer I wait the more the heart gets damaged and the damage is irreparable. He said, because some heart vessels have collapsed, no blood is going to some parts of the heart, destroying those parts. He said, usually this surgical procedure has to be done within 5 hours of the heart attack. It was 4 hours since the chest pain started. The doctor said the chest pain from the other day does not count, because the pain stopped. Today the pain would not stop. The clock was ticking. I had to decide now!

I told the doctor I need to smoke a cigarette and think about this. His eyes rolled in disbelieve. By that time, there were many doctors and nurses around me. He advised against smoking, but I insisted. I told him I am having nicotine withdrawal and I must smoke. My hands were shaking. He put me in a wheelchair, in my gown, and had a nurse and another doctor wheel me out of the hospital, so I could smoke. It was cold outside, and they brought me a blanket so I can cover myself. I pondered what to do. I wanted to speak to my wife before deciding on the operation, but she was at work and could not be reached until an hour later. I prayed to God and asked what to do! I finished my cigarette, and they brought me back to the operating room. I started gasping for air. The doctor sprayed nitroglycerin in my mouth and put an oxygen mask on me. After a few minutes I was ok. I said I need to smoke another cigarette, but I ran out. I said I want to go buy cigarettes. He was laughing a bit, thinking I was crazy. Here is a guy almost dieing, but he wants to smoke. He assigned a doctor and a nurse to accompany me to a store near by. They were worried I could collapse and brought a portable oxygen tank and a defibrillator – the electric shock machine with them. I bought the cigarettes, light up, and was walking back to the hospital. I asked God again, “what should I do?” There was no answer. I had to decide by myself. I decided to do the operation.

Back at the hospital the doctor tried calling my wife, but there was no answer. I laid down on the operating table. The doctor said there might be complications if the heart is extensively damaged and the stent surgery cannot be done. He said they will explore the heart with a wire camera and will decide if they will do a stent surgery or worst case scenario a bypass. He asked me to sign consent for the surgery. I did. Right before the surgery the doctor reached my wife. She was really surprised when a doctor said I am having a heart operation I said hello to her and told her that everything is alright and not to worry. She cried a bit! I was ready.

They shaved my groin area, but decided to go in via my arm. The doctor said, my legs were shaking too much. They gave me a mild sedative shot in my body and a local anesthesia shot for the arm which they are going to go in from. The doctor said that a full body anesthesia is dangerous, because I may not wake up from the sleep. I few minutes later I felt numbness in my arm and was fully relaxed and dazed. I was hooked up to a bunch of monitors, kept hearing a light beeping sound, and in faintness observed my heart on a monitor. A few hours later the operation was finished. The doctor told me that he put two stents in my heart vessels. I was brought out of the operating room into ICU. My wife and my sister in law were waiting in the room. I was feeble, wearing an oxygen mask, but happy to see them. I think I cried a bit. We all cried a bit.

I was on a road to recovery. I was told that I would need to stay a week to two weeks in ICU. Nurses checked my blood once a day and my heart rhythm via oscilloscope, which was connected to me all the time. The electrical wires to the oscilloscope kept falling off my body, because they where attached by tape. Nurses rushed in to see if I was ok. Later, they shaved my chest and stuck the tape so it would not fall off. One time, I had a really stupid nurse try to draw my blood. She could not find the vein. I complained, and she was gone. I never saw her again. The first few days I had to piss in a bottle but latter I was able to walk to the bathroom. The food was really lousy but I had no choice. I was given a nicotine patch so I would not crave for cigarettes. After four days I really needed a smoke, so I went outside with a nurse. The next few days I would go out for a smoke a few times a day. At first, a nurse would come with me, but then it was just I. I started walking outside a little bit, maybe 500 meters every day. Being that I would go out for walks and smoke cigarettes, after eight days the doctor told me I can check out. They were not happy that I was smoking, especially right after heart surgery. But I was feeling much better and went home.

Latter I found out the taxi driver was wrong, and there are many hospital emergency rooms that are open on Saturdays in my neighborhood. Maybe the guy was scared that I will die in his car, and he did not want to take any responsibility for it. But he did drive me around for 30 minutes looking for a small clinic. He could have brought me to any major hospital. We were in a big city. Getting sick in a foreign country is certainly dangerous. There are problems with communication, even if you speak the peoples’ language. But the doctors were really good to me and did a very fine job on the surgery. The nurses were kind and attentive. I am not an easy person to get a long with, besides care for. It was a crazy experience. I feel like I escaped death. I am glad everything turned out all right. I could have died!

Tags: health, society, travel

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under health, society, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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